Budget Games in Washington

Only in Washington DC is a budget increase a cut, and a cut an attack on our cities.

The CATO Institute's David Boaz writes in the most recent Daily Commentary that the budget proposed by the President is actually $80 Billion higher than last years. In fact, Federal spending has gone up 38% since George Bush took over from President Clinton.

But the press and the politicians are acting like he is cutting this thing to the bone. The Democrats want to be seen as protecting the interests of their constituents and the Republicans want to be seen as protecting the people's money. They both get what they want and the Press gets lots of good quotes:

"Slashing Funding" - Hilary Clinton

"Immoral" - Nancy Pelosi

"Three million children left behind" - Edward Kennedy

The Republicans are pretending this is a serious cut in Government spending:

"Spending discipline requires difficult choices" - President Bush

"This is the tightest budget that has been submitted since we got here." - Vice President Cheney

But the most frightening quote in Mr. Boaz's report is from Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley:

Back on September 11, terrorists attacked our metropolitan cores, two of America's great cities. They did that because they knew that was where they could do the most damage and weaken us the most," O'Malley said. "Years later, we are given a budget proposal by our commander in chief, the president of the United States. And with a budget ax, he is attacking America's cities. He is attacking our metropolitan core.